From the shapes we pass to the decorative patterns on Athenian vases, which form a link with the important question of subjects. As the methods of disposing the main designs became fixed, so did the scheme of subsidiary decoration, until it almost became stereotyped. Thus on the neck of an amphora there is always a pattern of double palmettes and lotos-buds (see Chapter [XVI].), round the foot always rays or pointed leaves shooting upwards. The former seems to have been a Corinthian, or perhaps Chalcidian, invention; the latter is Ionic, and is found as early as the Rhodian vases. On the shoulder of the red-bodied amphorae is a “tongue”-pattern bordering the field of design above, and below the field are rows of maeander-pattern and lotos-buds, sometimes repeated. The characteristic ornament of this class is, however, the arrangement of palmettes and lotos-buds under the handles, which is often very delicate and artistically conceived. A variation is found in the works of Exekias, who replaces it by an elaborate system of spirals—a pattern which, as we have seen, descended from Mycenaean art, by way of the Melian amphorae, to Athens. In the panel-amphorae the only ornaments besides those of the neck and foot are those bordering the panels, usually along the top only, and, in the case of those with large flanged handles, on that part of the vase also. In the former case a band of lotos-buds, sometimes alternating with palmettes, is most commonly found; in the latter, rows of ivy-leaves or rosettes occur on the sides of the handles, and a palmette at the point of junction with the vase.[[1194]]
In the hydriae the ornamentation consists of rays round the foot, with tongue-pattern on the top of the shoulder and round the handles; to this are added bands of ornament down the sides and along the bottom of the panel on the body. For the sides the favourite pattern is an ivy-wreath; but network is also used, and, on the inferior varieties, plain dots. Along the bottom the favourite device is a scroll of palmettes, often very artistic in character, the place of which is sometimes taken by a frieze of animals.
The same decorative principles are seen in the other shapes, but in a more limited degree. The ornament on a kylix is almost confined to palmettes springing from each side of the handles; but the interior designs are sometimes surrounded with tongue-pattern. The panels on the oinochoae are often bordered with ivy, network, or dots, as on the hydriae; on the lekythos the ornament is confined to a row of lotos-buds or palmettes on the shoulder.
Many vases of the B.F. period are decorated solely with these patterns; but these are usually small and insignificant specimens, with a band of palmettes or other pattern carelessly painted, perhaps used for the tomb by those who could not afford more elaborate specimens. In the tombs of Rhodes and Cyprus small amphorae and lekythi are often found, the bodies of which are covered with a plain network pattern in black on a red or white ground.[[1195]] Others, again, seem to have been executed with great care, and there is a beautiful example from Vulci in the British Museum—a jug with a frieze of palmettes and scrolls on a white ground (B 632).
To treat of the subjects depicted on Athenian black-figured vases within a reasonable compass is not only well-nigh impossible, but unnecessary, since it would practically be to traverse the ground covered in another part of this work. There are, however, some general considerations which must not be passed over. While we bear in mind that they are as comprehensive in their character as those on any other class of Greek vases, it may not be amiss to point out in what respects they vary, for instance, from the red-figured Athenian vases or from those of the decadence.
The main point of difference is that in B.F. vases the mythological element on the whole predominates, whereas in the later periods it is fully counterbalanced, if not outweighed, by the preponderance of subjects from daily life. The Attic ephebos has not yet attained to the height of popularity which he reaches on the red-figure kylikes of Euphronios and Duris, and the softer side of Greek life, the life of the women’s quarters, or the sentimental scenes of courting which begin to prevail towards the end of the fifth century, are the products of a later development of social conditions. Religion, it is true, does not maintain on the vases the overwhelming importance that it does in other branches of art, except in a few classes relating to certain cults; nor has the cult of the dead as yet found general expression. To what, then, do we owe the preference for scenes from heroic legend, and the myths relating to the gods? It is, perhaps, largely due to the extreme conventionality of Greek art in the sixth century, which embodies its conceptions in a series of fixed types, which the artist repeats again and again from sheer inability to strike out a new line for himself. But with the general and rapid advance of artistic conception and technical power at the beginning of the fifth century, the change at once becomes apparent,—not, be it noted, with the beginning of the red-figure style, which for a time preserves most of the characteristics of its predecessor; but with the ripening of the powers of a Euphronios and a Brygos, who paved the way for the greater freedom and variety of conception exhibited in the highest products of fifth-century vase-painting. At the same time an ethical change is to be observed, especially in the position now occupied by two deities who are entirely absent from the B.F. vases—the god of love (Eros), and the goddess of victory (Nike). To the popularising of these two conceptions is mainly due the preponderance of the sentimental and athletic elements of the subsequent age.
To return to the black-figured vases, we must now devote a few words to the consideration of the feature to which allusion has just been made, namely, the conventionalised types and schemes of composition in which the various myths and other themes are portrayed. Roughly speaking, they fall into three classes: (1) subjects represented by one single and constant type[[1196]]; (2) subjects represented by two or more distinct types[[1197]]; (3) subjects which fall into two or more episodes, each represented by a different type.[[1198]]
The question of the origin of these types is a difficult one to answer. They appear to have sprung, like the fully-armed Athena from the head of Zeus, in a matured form from the brain of the Athenian artist. It is, however, possible that the genius of some school of artists, such as those who conceived the decoration of the chest of Kypselos or the throne at Amyklae, may have influenced the vase-painters to a great extent. We have already seen how closely the scenes on some later Corinthian vases adhere to the description of Kypselos' chest. It is also a curious fact that the simpler form of a type is not necessarily the older. Some early types are of a quite complicated or elaborate nature; and the only variation apparent in a particular type is that of the number of bystanders watching the event. This, again, is due to an accidental cause—namely, the surface available for the painter, who, perhaps unconsciously, took the architectural sculptures of a temple for his model, and where his space resembled that of a metope (as in the panel-vases) reduced the number of his figures to a minimum, or where it took the form of a frieze filled in the space with a convenient number of spectators, the original “type” being preserved as a constant quantity in either case.
A question which has always presented great difficulties to students of vase-paintings is one that to a certain degree arises at all periods, but more especially in the one under discussion—namely, the difficulty of deciding whether certain subjects have a mythological meaning or not. The difficulty is, of course, in the first instance, due to the type-system. If the artist wished to depict a marriage procession in daily life, he instinctively had recourse to a familiar scheme for the purpose—namely, the “chariot-procession” type consecrated to the marriage of Zeus and Hera and similar Olympian triumphs. Or, again, scenes of warriors departing to battle or engaged in the fray would naturally be copied from such familiar types as that of Hector parting from his wife and child, or the fight of Achilles and Memnon over the body of Antilochos. Even inscriptions do not lend the aid that might be expected, as in some cases they are wrongly applied, or the names convey no meaning (as on the Corinthian vases, see pp. [315], [318]); and it is probable that in many cases the intention was just to produce a sort of parable or idealised picture of events of ordinary life, in order to give more interest to a theme.[[1199]]
Much of the interest of Athenian vases is derived from the inscriptions found upon them. These, which will be more fully dealt with elsewhere (Chapter [XVII].), fall into three main classes—artists’ signatures, names with καλός, and descriptive names referring to the designs. On the last-named head no more need now be said; the second is more appropriately dealt with in the next chapter[[1200]]—although not a few καλός-names are found on B.F. vases; and it only remains therefore to treat of the artists whose signatures have come down to us.[[1201]]